Iva

Iva is Miles Archer’s widow and Sam Spade’s former lover, but her own appearance is withheld until the novel’s final lines. Effie Perine announces that Iva has arrived, and Spade tells her to send Iva in. The story ends before Iva enters, leaving their encounter—and the consequences of her return—unresolved.

Identity and Context

Iva is connected to Spade through their affair and to the murder investigation through her marriage to Miles Archer. Although these relationships shape the novel’s personal and professional tensions, the supplied ending presents her only as an arriving visitor; it gives no account of her appearance, purpose, or state of mind at this moment.

Final Appearance

After Brigid O’Shaughnessy recoils from Spade’s touch and tells him not to touch her, the corridor-door knob rattles. Effie goes into the outer office, closes the door, and returns with the brief, flat announcement that Iva is there. Spade looks down at his desk, nods almost imperceptibly, and asks Effie to send her in.

The sequence makes Iva’s arrival a quiet but decisive interruption. The novel does not show her entering or speaking: it stops at Spade’s permission, with the meeting poised just beyond the final scene. Her return therefore closes the book without resolving what will pass between them.